December 22, 2010

Unusual Tales - The Cheapest Steak In Nome

"Unusual Tales", a series presenting Steve Ditko's comics from 1957 to 1959 that are in the public domain.

"The Cheapest Steak In Nome" is a quick little 2-page story from Charlton's MYSTERIES OF UNEXPLORED WORLDS #7 [1958].

It's set during the gold rush up in Alaska, and a cook who found a way to supply the newly wealthy with what they needed, at a price. Although when you read it, you'll probably notice that he was probably missing a bigger money making opportunity.

2 comments:

Now, I don't know how it was in the late 19th century, but I suspect even then the money you could get for finding an intact frozen dinosaur would be more than you'd get for however many steaks you chopped out of it. Of course, we're dealing with people who think dinosaurs lived "thousands of years" ago.

This is classic Ditko at its best, scientific non-accuracy notwithstanding.

Even though a Stan Lee version of this might well have had the dead sauropod in a very last enlarged panel with shock on the competitor's face, I prefer the way it was done here, on the light side and, if not with amity prevailing, then at least in the spirit of a cessation of intrigue.